...says Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon with an interest in medical history at Imperial College London. Tutankhamun died young with a feminised physique, and so did his immediate predecessors.

Paintings and sculptures show that Smenkhkare, an enigmatic pharaoh who may have been Tutankhamun's uncle or older brother, and Akhenaten, thought to have been the boy king's father, both had feminised figures, with unusually large breasts and wide hips. Two pharaohs that came before Akhenaten -- Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV -- seem to have had similar physiques. All of these kings died young and mysteriously, says Ashrafian. "There are so many theories, but they've focused on each pharaoh individually."

Ashrafian found that each pharaoh died at a slightly younger age than his predecessor, which suggests an inherited disorder, he says. Historical accounts associated with the individuals hint at what that disorder may have been.

"It's significant that two [of the five related pharaohs] had stories of religious visions associated with them," says Ashrafian. People with a form of epilepsy in which seizures begin in the brain's temporal lobe are known to experience hallucinations and religious visions, particularly after exposure to sunlight. It's likely that the family of pharaohs had a heritable form of temporal lobe epilepsy, he says.

This diagnosis would also account for the feminine features. The temporal lobe is connected to parts of the brain involved in the release of hormones, and epileptic seizures are known to alter the levels of hormones involved in sexual development. This might explain the development of the pharaohs' large breasts. A seizure might also be to blame for Tutankhamun's fractured leg, says Ashrafian (Epilepsy & Behavior, doi.org/h8s).

"The exact timing of Akhenaten's religious conviction is not so clearly documented, and most cases of sudden religious conversion are not due to epilepsy," he says. "Monotheism could be related to epilepsy, or bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, or drug intoxication from a fungus - but this paper does not sway me to any of these options." Markel agrees: "Do we know that a seizure led to monotheism? It's a nice idea, but we don't know," he says. "It's a very interesting hypothesis, but it's just that - there's no definite proof."

In other words, "never mind."

5
posted on 09/10/2012 6:23:44 PM PDT
by Alex Murphy
(At the end of the day, you have to worship the god who can set you on fire.)

I should think that the most obvious cause of physical disorders and early deaths would have been the custom of royal incest among the pharoahs. Inbreeding usually causes health problems after a while.

That’s a separate issue from the idea that it would take some sort of illness to bring on the concept of monotheism. Perhaps the scientists who posit this are themselves suffering from some sort of mental disorder.

Aten had a cult before Akhenaten, but the pharaoh found it convenient to elevate it above all others, and then to eliminate all others. It was a politically (and economically) motivated religious schism by Akhetaten, who wanted to collect the revenues ordinarily collected by the many cultic temples. There’s signs that Akhenaten was more like Henry VIII upon his closure and sacking of, for example, Glastonbury.

Tut, on the other hand, restored the old cults, and built that huge central columnade in Luxor temple. It’s usually attributed to Ramses II, but he just had his name carved over Tut’s (he did this other times, and his reputation of being a great builder is somewhat inflated); some of the cartouches way up near the top were not visible from the ground and were either left on purpose or just missed.

Aten had a cult before Akhenaten, but the pharaoh found it convenient to elevate it above all others, and then to eliminate all others. It was a politically (and economically) motivated religious schism by Akhetaten, who wanted to collect the revenues ordinarily collected by the many cultic temples.

Thanks for posting this. I learned something new about Akhenaten!

10
posted on 09/10/2012 6:58:13 PM PDT
by Alex Murphy
(At the end of the day, you have to worship the god who can set you on fire.)

temporal lobe epilepsy can lead to visions, but the few patients I’ve treated with the disease weren’t feminine looking, and his linkage of the problems don’t make sense.

And the latest autopsy suggested that Tut died after he had a compound fracture of the femur, in an area that suggested he crashed his chariott and was thrown forward and his thigh hit the front of the chariott...the fracture had started to heal suggesting it was the infection that actually killed him.

He did that number at the Lansing Civic Center back at that time; a roadie came up and strapped on a guitar, he played one chord, and that was it, part of the overall gag. For the second show, John Denver was roadie, but we missed that.

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